Mount Langi Ghiran celebrates 40 years of Langi

The birth of the wine which gave rise to a full throttle national cool climate shiraz phenomenon was - how I shall put it - less than great. The year was 1981.

The growing season in the lead up to vintage had been hot and dry, leaving shiraz fruit deeply affected by intense heat and drought.
There was, according to insiders, “little to write home about.”

Needless to say, the wine – Grampians-based Mount Langi Ghiran’s ‘Langi’ shiraz - and its winemaker, Trevor Mast, got over the disappointment and by the time of the release of the stunning 1984 vintage, wine professionals were taking notice. A highly individual, exciting and, it was said, “new” form of shiraz was emerging, offering an almost 360-degree turnaround from the boldness of the dominant Aussie style of the day, a la Barossa. Langi didn’t yell. It spoke seductively and carried a secret weapon, an often positively preposterous amount of peppery spice.

In a recent milestone tasting of 40 years of Langi shiraz 1981-2021, it has to be said that the appearance of pepper and exuberant spice was just one thread to the story. Rotundone, the peppery compound, is naturally occurring and comes on late in the season, so the longer, cooler seasons is when it tends to make its mark.

“We can’t control it,” notes winemaker, Adam Louder. “If it’s there, I think it’s a great feature of the wine and our style, but I certainly don’t seek it out.”
He adds, with an unspoken sense of emphasis, “We’re not a one trick pony, there’s a lot more to our wines.”

Contrary to his name, Louder is quiet, unassuming, a listener rather than a talker with a notable absence of ego. You have to suspect it’s the country lad in him. He grew up on his parents’ property at the base of Mount Langi Ghiran, played as a kid in the vineyard and, after getting to know Trevor Mast, was asked to do odd jobs. He worked at Best’s every school holiday and started at Mount Langi as a cellar hand in 1998. After time making wine in Margaret River, he returned to Mount Langi. Sadly, Trevor Mast died in 2012. In 2018, Louder took over from Ben Haines as chief winemaker.

Viticulturist, Damien Sheehan, is similarly laconic, relaxed and thrives in a region noted for its relative isolation between vineyards, towns and noted for its self-sufficiency. “If you’re looking for a wine community, it’s not there,” he says. Together, they pursue a pretty simple philosophy when it comes to Langi – pick on the tannins first, fruit second. For both men, shiraz tannins have to be showing good integration from the get-go.

For the Langi tasting, 40 years were reduced and encapsulated into just 28 representative shiraz - warts and all. “I thought it was important to show everything, hits and misses,” says Louder. No Langi was made in ’01, ’02, ’16, ’20, ’23. And so, with each decade, each winemaker (there have been five), each winemaking trend - from whole bunches until 2019 and some prominent American oak until 1994 - not to mention, a new winery (1999), the arrival of the screwcap on Langi (2000), the long-running Millennium Drought (2001-2009) and the fundamental, existential changes wrought by climate and vintage, Langi shiraz evolved.

At its essence, the Langi vineyard, planted in 1969 by the Fratin brothers, who sourced pre-phylloxera shiraz cuttings from Best’s and Seppelt, brings quite a definitive style of shiraz. It is medium bodied, revels in both black and red fruits – sometimes blue - carries an entrancing perfume of Aussie bush and the land and often lights up in peppery spice while remaining quintessentially elegant. It also ages a treat while also being mighty delicious in its youth.

That is the style that first won hearts and minds in the 1980s. Its star has not diminished in the intervening years, but with time in the cellar, some vintages, some bottles – as we know – tend to shine brighter than others.

Jeni Port's top 10 from the tasting:

1996: still wonderfully fresh, delivering a fine elegance in ripe, black berries, baking spices, persuasive oak and all.
1999: solid in red hues, black cherry, plum and spices, tannins bright and fine, a wine enjoying the years.
2004: wow! 15% alcohol but it carries it well, rich, textural, spice living large including a beautiful background note of pepper.
2010: super peppery, super good, it’s all about the balance – classic Langi still full of verve.
2012: a strong savoury, earthy, leathery, herbal vibe in full song and fruit is up to it.
2014: effortless expression of Langi with age, aromatically lifted, ripe fruit in full control delivered with finesse.
2015: top vintage, top wine, warm, generous, all the signature Langi markers are still very much on show. 
2018: spice, chocolate, black and red fruits, jalapeño, pepper, a celebration of cool climate shiraz in one upfront, joyous wine.
2019: combines an open generosity in fruit and oak with some whole bunch herbals and structural tannins.
2021: a triumph of the triumvirate - ‘fruit-oak-tannin’ - seamless, youthful, aromatic, structural and, yes, spicy.

And what of the wine that started it all, the 1981 Langi? Happy to say, there was life. There was a tingle of black fruit hanging on nicely surrounded in an earthy, tarry, aniseed, chocolate notes with, yes, a quiet undercurrent of woodsy spice. Trevor Mast would have been pleased.

NOTE: While it is acknowledged that the first shiraz made under the Mount Langi Ghiran label was in 1979 by the Fratin brothers, it was the arrival of ex-Best’s chief winemaker, Trevor Mast, as consultant winemaker for the 1981 vintage that Langi shiraz in its current form was made. The rest, as they say, is history.